The Philadelphia Union's trade haul for former No. 1 overal MLS SuperDraft pick Danny Mwanga did not last very long at PPL Park.

Colombian forward Jorge Perlaza was unceremoniously cut by the Union not even three months after being acquired from the Portland Timbers in exchange for Mwanga in early June. Perlaza played just twice for the Union, making one start. In a combined 12 games this season, Perlaza did not register a goal or an assist a season after scoring six times and assisting on two goals in 31 games with the Timbers.

For the Union, the trade allowed them to wipe Mwanga's escalating salary off the books while parting ways with the franchise's first draft pick. He has scored one goal in 11 games (four starts) with the Timbers since the deal.

Here are a couple of more items from around MLS:

DYNAMO SIGN BARNES

Giles Barnes was once considered a top English prospect. Now he is a member of the Houston Dynamo.

The 24-year-old attacking midfielder and former U-19 English international was signed by the Dynamo Wednesday, providing yet another in-season attacking boost to a club that has benefitted greatly from the mid-season acquisition of Designated Player Oscar Boniek Garcia and reacquisition of midfielder Ricardo Clark.

"This is a very exciting signing for the club," Dynamo president Chris Canetti said in a statement. "We have acquired a young, talented and versatile player with the potential of being an impact player in MLS."

Barnes most recently spent time at Doncaster Rovers and West Brom over the last two seasons but made his name at Derby County, where he was the club's Young Player of the Year in 2007. He helped the Rams gain promotion to the Premier League that season,

“We believe that this is an excellent opportunity for Victor to earn playing time in a good league,” Red Bulls general manager Erik Soler said. "Victor is still a very young player with a lot of potential and we look forward to tracking his progress in the Netherlands, with the option of bringing him back to New York next year."

Palsson played in 16 games for the Red Bulls this season.

TIMBERS PLAN TO WIDEN FIELD

Jeld-Wen Field has drawn plenty of acclaim for its atmosphere but has its detractors for the narrowness of the field. That latter won't be an issue starting next season.

According to The Oregonian, the Timbers will add two yards to either side of the field, bringing the dimensions from 70 yards wide by 110 yards long to 74 X 110. General manager and interim coach Gavin Wilkinson said that the decision had nothing to do with the pending hire of the team's new coach, which is Akron (and attack-minded) coach Caleb Porter.

"It's something that would be a natural development for us as a team," Wilkinson said. "Coming in as an expansion team, we wanted a tighter area with which to play, to feed off the emotion. The new coach hasn't had any input on this. This is a philosophical decision from the organization in the way we want to be recognized and the way we want to play."

The Impact have cut season-ticket prices by an average of 15 percent, and existing season-ticket holders will be getting a 10 percent rebate for their 2012 seats, the club announced on Wednesday.

"I am proud to confirm that there will be a price reduction and we will be rewarding the loyalty of our current season ticket holders," Impact president Joey Saputo said in a statement. "Even though we are currently having success on the field and in the stands, we will never take our ticket holders for granted."

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What do you think of the Union cutting Perlaza? Do you think Barnes is a steal for the Dynamo? What do you think of Palsson being loaned out? Pleased that Portland will widen its field? Impressed that the Impact are cutting their season-ticket prices after the success they've had in their expansion year?

So excited as a Dynamo fan right now. We are playing beautiful soccer, and the loss of Geoff Cameron is hopefully proving to not be a big hit. Especially with Garcia, Clark, and now Barnes, we look like a contender again.

Barnes is interesting. There are articles linking him to several English clubs earlier this year, now he is with the Dynamo? And not for a DP salary? Either he was really impressed with Dom sending Holden and Cameron to the EPL or he is washed up at 24 and cashing in the only place he can, MLS.

its overall low risk. You bring in a guy with probable high upside (still young) and hunger to prove himself. He comes in free, so if he gets transferred that is just bonus. If it turns out he isn’t working, not much harm done. He gets cut at the end of the season. So there is no reason to not bring someone in especially with international dates coming up and CCL games.

You must not have been watching the recent league matches. We haven’t won a MLS game in a month.

One weakness tangential Dynamo fans seem to miss was Cameron was primarily a back this year, which was where a void was left. Those treating Clark for Cameron as a “trade” seem to be thinking about the past few years’ experiment, but he was playing back this year and we’ve repeatedly gone on streaks of allowing goals with this backline. Little too slow IMO and Cameron was one of the few around able to offset that.

The other weakness I see in the team is wing depth. Boniek cannot play both right sided spots in a 433 and that forces us to play Carr or some out-of-position CDM out there. I think we have way too many CDMs (add one more with Clark) rostered and not enough wing players.

I see the Barnes signing as a step in the right direction if he can contribute on the right wing. I’m not a Carr fan nor do I like watching destroyers pretend to be wings.

I also think we are stuttering a little as we get Clark fit and up to speed. Long term that’s a good pickup but it’s another player to integrate in a side that was working before that.

All in all, a reminder titles aren’t won in July. But hopefully we’ll drop Ashe and Carr and get Clark fit and maybe integrate this Barnes kid and return to the upward progression. At minimum, we have a couple more weeks’ grace on table worries, though I’m a little worried about fixture congestion and roster shuffling, Kinnear’s better at drilling a firxt XI than tactical shifts and player shuffling.

Holden was a Clemson player turned Sunderland reserve who suffered injury woes there, came to Houston to reboot, then went to Bolton. I’m always bemused when people argue we turned a Sunderland pickup into a player worthy of England. Hmmm. IMO it took Dom forever to integrate the talented kid into the XI. Just check his MLS stats and how long it took him to surpass Mullan, for whom he deputized for more than a year, even when he was superior statistically.

Cameron is more of a feather in Kinnear’s cap because he was a random supplemental draft pickup who turned out good, but Kinnear’s use of him as a utility player has arguably slowed the Dynamo’s resurgence — only this year has real effort gone into acquiring impact attacking players to replace DeRo/ Holden — and slowed Cameron’s progression at any one position. I think he’d have been a Nats back years ago if Kinnear left that alone when he made Best XI.

I don’t think he is washed up having been apparently scouted by various Euro teams leaving Doncaster this year, but you do wonder why he ends up here and not PAOK, Lorient, etc. I know we’d offer a more certain paycheck than Greece, but with how quickly he impressed here apparently, you wonder what’s up.

Sadly it'[s not only Nowark. Sackeiwicz is still there and he’s had a hand in a lot of these “for naught” transactions.

Since Seba and Califf and Mondragon left, there has been a need for a proven finisher, a physical presence at center back and a GK with good judgement. None of that has been addressed this year. (Soumare is still a season away)

What’s more alarming is that the union have the potential to be a fast passing quick tempo team, but that has just not clicked yet. it’s building, but I’m really concerned the front office will not give this lineup the time–or the three critical cogs mentioned above– that are still missing.

He hurt his knee and foot. This is chance to prove himself again. I’m happy to have him. Holden’s injuries were related to a bar brawl if I’m not mistaken. And he was always clearly more talented then others around him but Dom doesn’t play youth over proven experience typically.